[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 23, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H4588]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   LET'S PUT OUR KIDS BEFORE CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Barletta) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BARLETTA. Mr. Speaker, today, once again, we are going to debate 
what we need to do to stop these senseless attacks on our schools.
  Our schools are a place of memories. Think about it. We can all, 
every one of us, recite stories of when we were in elementary school. 
We all know stories about friends or things that happened in junior 
high school and in high school. Our life's memories are filled back in 
those schooldays, those memories.
  The children today, the kids today, have different memories of 
school. No child in America should go to school afraid, and no parent 
in America should worry about their children, if they are going to come 
home safely, when they send them to school.
  As I stand here right now, outside these doors there are armed guards 
with machine guns, guard dogs, metal detectors to keep us safe. But 
today, once again, children will go to school across America and sit 
like sitting ducks in a classroom.
  When a crazed madman attacked my colleagues and friends at baseball 
practice, our response was instant. It was immediate. Democrats and 
Republicans, we all agreed we need more security for Congress, we need 
more money to secure our offices, to secure our staff to make sure they 
are safe. We even found money to provide security for us at home. 
People move pretty fast here when it is about themselves and their 
families.
  Why do we think that our lives are more important than the lives of 
any parent's child in America?
  Why do we think we are more important that we can find security for 
ourselves so quickly?
  We should take every metal detector in this building and send it to 
some school tomorrow until we find the money to secure our schools like 
we did for ourselves.
  I read an article where root canals and colonoscopies have a higher 
approval rating than Congress. Maybe the American people will think 
differently if we put our kids before Congress.

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